Here is Dina’s art with this week’s catalyst. You can click on it to see a larger version and more detail.

Dina Says:

The time when I felt most alone was last March…I was teaching overseas and encountered some people who thought my art was pretty much ridiculous. After enduring their public scorn, I felt intensely alone. I was homesick (I had been gone 25 days) and I desperately missed my 3 boys and my husband. I felt so very far away from anyone who loved me–I was so anxious to return to them. When I got off the airplane in Phoenix, I assumed my family would pick me up at the curb like they usually do. But, as I walked out of the terminal, I saw my 3 boys and my husband waiting for me just past security, grinning from ear to ear. Being with them again was truly joyous!

Technique Highlight:

I love to use Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels to highlight silhouettes in my work. I create the silhouette, and then I scribble some of the oil pastel around the perimeter. I use my finger to blend and spread the colors. The pastels are creamy and buttery, and are super easy to use.

Thank you so much Dina; we’re so very honored.

Here are some interpretations of the catalyst from members of our team.

Rachel:

Journaling Reads:

Constantly inside my head… analyzing, wondering, doubting… to the point of isolation. I never feel more alone than when I am in a crowd, but I am constantly hoping and looking to not feel so alone in life..

Larissa:

Larissa Says:

I’ve always wanted a passionate life, dreaming of intensively living my fairy tale. My story, however, has its ups and downs and solitude moments. I felt lonely when I was not understood. I felt lonely when despised, resigning myself to waiting for better moments, for my fairy tale, for romanticism, for passion.

For this catalyst, I worked on a wire manequin with hoop in which I assembled a beautiful wedding dress, all ornamented with little birds, flowers and butterflies, representing the search for my fairy tale, for overcoming loneliness.

Karen:

Karen Says:

While there are also many good memories from that time, The beginning of Freshman year of college was a really hard time for me. I remember a day when I received a package of CDs from my mom. I put on “Little Jeannie” by Elton John and so many memories of home came back that I sat and wept. It was hard to be so far away from home, learning so many new cultural things along with educational ones. I made it through beautifully but there were a few rough months there at first.

Anita:

Anita Says:

I was so alone before I found my husband and had my children. They totally complete me! Could imagine my life without any of them.

Journaling Reads:

Alone? Before him, before children, before my life has been blessed, before I knew God, before all the things I have now. I am NOT alone anymore!

Severine:

Severine Says:

I always hated speaking in public. Each time, it is a great moment of loneliness for me, I prick a lighthouse, I can hardly speak, I have a stomach ache … in short a real torture, it’s only when I host a scrapbooking workshop that I can go over everything.

I think often the times I feel most alone are the times in which I am surrounded by other people — routine moments where there are many people and many conversations going on over and above and around me. In those moments, I feel keenly how alone I am, how on the outside of things. Knitting is a good surface in these moments. My mind is in constant motion – a dialogue within – even as conversations swirl around me. Note: This piece went through several versions. The drawing was the core, but after finishing that, I wanted to add in all the conversation floating around me, but not quite reaching me. I did that digitally, but it seemed, in the end, that the drawing alone… stands alone.

Katie:

Katie Says:

The most alone I ever felt was in the middle of an afternoon in May, when I was 15. It was a traumatic day, one that I will never forget. The one thing that I kept focused on was a little patch of blue sky that was peeking out from between the thick branches that blocked the Virginia sky that day. I prayed over and over to God to help me but he didn’t answer my prayers. I felt so alone, so scared, so hurt. I just stared at that blue patch and prayed for it to all be over. I have recently been blogging about this event in my life after many years of silence. It felt so good. I did feel that day that God was not there for me. Not that day or many days after. But now that my story has been told and I can go back and re-read it, I see it in a different light. I see it totally differently.

For one, maybe God could not stop it. Maybe the forces of evil were too strong that day. Maybe God could only be there to help me get through it that day.

Or, maybe God did protect me. Maybe I was not ever meant to walk out of those woods. Maybe God was there helping me to survive.

I don’t know what purpose that day had or if there was any purpose at all. But today but I don’t believe that I was “alone” that day. Looking back, I know that God was there.

I started this project out with the intention of having a blue sky peeking out of some heavy branches and communicating the turmoil that I felt that day. But somehow the project turned peaceful and pretty even though the memory isn’t. Somehow some inner peace was found while creating this project. Something that was meant to communicate the fear and “alone” feeling ended up turning into a quiet and peaceful project. Maybe, finally that scary day is gone forever and in it’s place is God’s love.

Technique Highlight:

Hydrangea and Blue Maya Mist with white paint splatter covered with the 2 part Helmar Crackle Glaze. Then inked with Maya Road white pigment ink and gently wiped off with a damp rag so that the white ink filled in the cracks. The branches are inked brown, lines drawn with pen and then layered with the Helmar Textured Effects for an authentic branch texture. Leaves punched, line embossed, folded and inked.

Now it’s your turn: show us your therapeutic art around “When in life have you felt most alone?” I urge you to give it a try. It can be any form of art as long as it speaks to you.

Leave us comments with your work so we can share in your creative therapy, too. If you don’t have a community or blog where you upload photos, you can upload them on our flickr group.

Remember, this is not a competition. If your art makes you feel even a bit better at the end, you’ve won.

They’re all so inspirational, but Katie, yours truly brought me to tears. God bless you for your courage in confronting the demons that haunt you and for choosing to see the blessing and to move forward. May you find complete peace, dear one.

Beautiful work and a great topic to help work through the hard points in life.
My friend Liz and I put a video together of our art coming together for this catalyst.
Thanks so much for the inspiration.

[…] just mean artistically. You’ll see what I mean in a minute. So the catalyst was “When in life have you felt most alone” . I have felt completely alone many, many times. I actually cherish being alone but to […]